Versus: Nightwing vs. Robin (vs. Robin vs. Robin vs. Robin)

What is Versus? Versus is a 26 Character Single Elimination Bracket. We will feature a new pairing each week till we reach the ultimate champion!

Nightwing
Strengths: Boyishly handsome. Compassionate to a fault. Wicked sense of humor and an inability to contain all of his snark. First apprentice to the World’s Greatest Detective (and no intellectual slouch himself). First Robin. Raised by Bruce Wayne. Crazy flexible and nearly inhumanly agile. Huge Superman fan and wants to be just like him.

Weaknesses: Pretty redheads who can usually kick his ass. Trying to please his insanely difficult-to-please pseudo father figure. An inability to refrain from making even the worst, most blatantly obvious puns.

Famous Escapes: Has defied death on multiple occasions, including being the only surviving member of his birth family (The Flying Graysons) and walked away (sort of) from the wrong end of a beating delivered by Two-Face. Escaped Bruce’s shadow (though he had to run all the way to Bludhaven to do it and did eventually come back to take up the mantle of the Bat on more than one occasion).

Robin (Jason)Strengths: Boyishly handsome. Hard headed to a fault. Wicked, cynical sense of humor and a belief that justice must always be meted out. Highly intelligent. Rough-and-tumble and innately street-smart. Huge Nightwing fan and wants to be just like him.

Weaknesses: Acute awareness that he’s really just a “replacement” and resultant fear that he’s never good enough. An inability to follow direct orders due to both the fear of not measuring up and his desire to dispense justice (with his fists. And later, two guns.). Sometimes surly, often cocky. His birth mother. Crowbars.

Famous Escapes: Escaped death itself after some indeterminate number of years, literally clawing his way out of his own grave thanks to some intervention from Ra’s Al Ghul. Somehow escaped Batman’s wrath when he was discovered trying to boost the wheels from the Batmobile – instead of putting him in Juvie, the Bats put him in the pixie boots.

Robin (Tim)Strengths: Boyishly handsome. Insanely intellectual (almost to a fault). Actually went looking for the job (or at least went looking for Dick trying to convince him to take it back), so knew what he was in for. Huge Nightwing fan and wants to be just like him. Acutely aware of his own strengths and weaknesses.

Weaknesses: Insanely intellectual – can often appear emotionally constipated. Can be surly and grumpy. A bit too much like modern-day Bruce at times. Acutely aware of his own strengths and weaknesses. His father. Bruce Wayne. Stephanie Brown.

Famous Escapes: Has escaped death at the hands of Jason (more than once. Jason has…issues). Other than that, seems to have an uncanny ability for not being around when the absolute worst things happen, or an ability to have foreseen the event and prepared for it accordingly.

Robin (Stephanie)Strengths: Adorably pretty. Bubbly personality. Awareness of Batman and his modus operandi (as well as the M.O.s of those he often goes up against). Awareness that Bruce really doesn’t want her in the role of Robin. While not insanely intelligent, she is no intellectual slouch. Highly aware of her limitations and plays that to her advantage. Insanely good martial artist.

Weaknesses: An inability to follow direct orders due to a desire to prove herself worthy of being Robin (and to prove she’s nothing like her super-villain father). Brash. Cocky. Too bold for her own good. Overconfident (which then leads to underconfidence, once exploited).

Famous Escapes: Has escaped death a handful of times, most notably after being tortured by the Black Mask thanks to some intervention from Leslie Thompkins. Escaped Bruce’s shadow and the identity of Robin.

Robin (Damian)Strengths: Far more intelligent than any ten-year-old has a right to be. Son of Bruce Wayne. Grandson of Ra’s al Ghul. Insanely good martial artist.Weaknesses: To say he’s cocky is a severe understatement. Haughty. Convinced of his own superiority in all ways compared to those around him. Intense desire to be simply loved and accepted and a complete inability to either understand or express such. Dick Grayson.

Famous Escapes: Has already nearly died a handful of times, most notably after being shot by Flamingo. Escaped the clutches of his crazy grandfather and debatably crazy mother.

Who will take the winners bracket and make their way to the top? The choice is yours!

9 Comments

Captain FenrisNovember 19th, 2012 at 10:51 am

Wait, you lumped ALL the Robins together? I thought this was going to be a hard decision between Dick and Tim, but if a vote for Robin is considered a vote for Damian? Screw that, I’m voting Nightwing.

This might be the hardest VS choice yet. Sure, Nightwing’s the obvious choice, but I love Tim and Stephanie, and I even appreciate that little wackjob Damian (Jason Todd can go die in a fire though). Which to choose?

I agree this should be just between Dick & Tim. Although extra credit should go to Tim for changing the Robin suite when he took the job and Dick should loose points for picking the original Robin suite to begin with.

Jason & Damian have major attitude problems and are almost criminals themselves. Plus the only ones that have ever lived up to taking over for Bruce are Dick and Tim.

Steph is cute but I think it was clear from the beginning that she was just a fill in.

Alex HallNovember 19th, 2012 at 5:05 pm

I think Jason Todd is one of DC’s best anti-hero figures and I’m a big Tim Drake fan, but I can’t go against Nightwing. Dick Grayson is one of the best and most interesting comic superheros of all time and my personal favorite. Crossing my fingers that he wins this battle!

RobertNovember 19th, 2012 at 5:29 pm

This is tough. As much as I love Stef and Tim, gotta give this to Grayson. He actually was Batman on two occasions. First when Bane broke Bruce’s back and Azrael went bat-crap crazy, and second, after Bruce was hit by the Omega Sanction and presumed dead. Add that to him being leader of the original Teen Titans, able to hold his own against Deathstroke the Terminator, lead the Outsiders, and lead a version of the Justice League (while he was Batman) and his accomplishments outweigh all of the bat-family with the exceptions being Bruce Wayne, and Cassandra Cain.

marcusNovember 20th, 2012 at 2:20 am

I really like Jason, but my vote has to go to Damian. Damian is awesome and we see a side of Bruce that we have not seen before.

KeenanNovember 23rd, 2012 at 2:10 am

I thought Jason would be up there because that to me explained a lot of the classic robins i guess i have NO clue 🙂